I have some older (mid 70’s) rolling stock that I’ve found from when I was a kid. They seem to have larger flanges than my new rolling stock. They don’t cosistently roll over the turnouts and crossovers on my code 83 track without derailing. Has anyone come up with a way to make the flanges smaller, or will I just have to buy new wheel sets?
Replace the wheelsets with metal ones from Kadee, Proto2000, InterMountain, or whatever you can find that will fit.
First, you need to remove one of the old axles to see if it has a needlepoint on the end or is squared off. Unless it has the needlepoint it can’t be easily replaced, because all of the replacements have a pointed end. If you have blunt ended axles, you’ll have to replace the entire truck, and probably the coupler, too.
If this older rolling stock has a brand name of Mantua, Tyco, Lima, ATT, or LifeLike on the bottom, you will probably have to replace the entire truck because they usually had the blunt axles and out-of-round plastic axles and wheels.
Those old large flanges were made when code 100 was considered the hobby standard. Even without the problem with the flanges, the wheels that came with rolling stock from that era are generally of poor quality compared with what is available now.
Track and wheels are areas where you don’t want to compromise on quality.
There are many types of replacement wheels out there. It takes some experimenting. If you are talking about locomotives this can be very difficult because there is also the issue of the gears. It IS possible to grind down the flanges on a locomotive having it run under its own power but the filings tend to get caught in the motor and gears and it is possible to burn out the motor if you press too hard.
Dave Nelson